Thomas Schmidt has recently published an article, “Singing the hiccup – on texting the hocket” Early Music History 32 (2013):225-275 [link]. One of the principal aims is to show that text underlay in certain hockets should split words within syllables; this argument proceeds from a construction of the etymology of “hocket” as meaning “hiccup.”

This is a brief discourse on the etymologies of three separate terms used to refer to hockets in the sources which Schmidt cites: hoquet/oketus, upatura, singultus. I will show in turn that none of these must mean “hiccup,” and, particularly, that hoquet and upatura are very unlikely to have meant “hiccup” in the fourteenth century.

Hoquet
The principal OF meaning of hocton/hoqueton/hoquet/hoquerel (n.) is “snare, trap” (Ste-Maure, Chronique, 1150). This is still a possible (the primary?) meaning in the fourteenth cen. (as in Guiard, Royaulx lignages, 1306) but by this time it can also have the more general meaning of “jerk, jolt” (this too in Guiard). Hoqueter (v.i.) in standard francien dialect means “to cast, to shake,” but usage allies still it closely with traps (the context is fishing in Mont Cassin, Ystoire de li Normant, 1308). Thus it appears that the meaning of the nominal form is metynymic; that is, the name of the trap is taken from the action of springing it. Most interesting is that hoquerel is a glossed as piedge (MF piège, “snare”) < L pedica “fetter” (lit. “that which holds the foot” ) in the Roman de Brut (1155), which is corroborated by looking at the analogous passages in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia (1130s?). Hochier (v.t.), “to shake,” is a related term as Schmidt points out; it derives from picardien ho(c)t(t)is(s)ôn, “a jolt, a shake” as a horseman may feel on a rough ride. It seems reasonable to suppose that they both derive from some common root given the morphological and semantic overlap; the fact that their usage distributions (i.e. salient contexts) do not overlap is no cause for worry, since they represent separate dialect traditions. It seems therefore that the most natural understanding of the term hocket is that it refers to the jerking or casting back and forth between two voices; it could refer to a sudden jerking away from the normal texture of the surrounding music to the special texture of the hocket; perhaps the semantics of the snare refers to the enmeshing of the lines participating in the hocket. Whatever the case may be, it is clear that the sixteenth-century connotation of “hiccup” (itself semantically related, to be sure, as a kind of jolting breath) is unattested in any of the sources from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries. There is a significant difference between “jerking, casting” in general (which might only refer to the notes to the exclusion of text, as is argued in a forthcoming article by Anna Zayaruznaya in Journal of Musicology 30/4) and “hiccupping,” which implies a connection to the breath and perhaps therefore the text.

Upatura
The other term in play is the enigmatic upatura from the fourteenth cen. Carmelite constitution. I’m sceptical whether this can be so neatly identified with hiccups or hockets. (Schmidt baldly translates it as “hiccup,” which assumes a fact not in evidence.) It’s worth noting that it is Ferrara from which this document originates (it’s even in Lockwood’s book, but he tacitly skips upatura in his translation); an Italian hiccup is a singotta/singhiozza < L singultus (~ MF sanglot). Ostensibly, then, upatura belongs to neither of these lexical families (that is, neither the “hocket” nor “hiccup” family). What might it mean instead? A quick scan through the corpus suggests that it might be related to *hip(p)ar “to pant, to sigh, to yearn.” Perhaps upatura refers to songs of an overtly vulgar or lewd character? The 1581 Carmelite constitution glosses upatura — this odd word was apparently a problem for them too — as “cantigas nefarias” which can only mean something like “vulgar songs” rather than “hocket” or “hiccup.” (Cards on the table, however, it must be mentioned that hipar, coincidentallymeans hiccup in modern Spanish. This is a red herring: it probably arises as an instance of semantic narrowing from the general sense of “to pant.” Thus it is completely unrelated to the meaning of hoquet in MF as “hiccup,” since the latter derives from a verb meaning “to jerk.”)

Singultus
As Schmidt writes, it is true that singultus is glossed as oketus in Boen, Musica, 1355. But this is insufficient demonstration that they both mean “hiccup” in this context. To be sure, singultus is the normal Latin word for “hiccup”; but it does not always mean “hiccup.” Singultus < singula “unit”; thus singultus is that which is characterized as being “of units” or possibly “unitary.” This is the feature shared by all its meanings in Latin: sob, death rattle, hiccup, etc. all comprise many single gasps or breaths. The point here is that if this were the primary semantic domain that the writer is thinking, then there would have been a more obvious French translation of this word than oketus: this word is sangleut/sanglot. In other words, the fact that it is glossed as oketus rather than sangleut, taken together with the semantic context, seems to me to indicate that Boen is thinking of singultus in a rather more abstract sense: “that which is comprised of singularities/units”; and in this sense it is a quite apt Latinization of oketus “hocket.” An appeal to the semantics of “hiccup” is not at all necessary to rationalize this move.

]]>Tuning Recipehttp://www.matthewjhall.com/2013/02/02/tuning-recipe/
Sat, 02 Feb 2013 07:21:42 +0000http://www.matthewjhall.com/?p=281There’s tuning and there’s tuning. Sometimes, I will be asked to tune a specific temperament. Though there are official recipes for such things, usually I just tune according to the following method. By simply adjusting the size of the fourths or fifths, I can achieve a gradient of tunings ranging from 1/4-comma meantone to (nearly-)equal temperament, with everything in between, including 1/5- and 1/6-comma meantones with or without specific enharmonic accidentals and circulating well-temperaments of various stripes. Notice that there are no beat counts here. They’re hardly ever necessary*.

I’ve annotated this procedure meticulously. I wish when I was learning how to tune someone had given me such precise advice rather than just beat counts. Pitches are designated according to the Helmholtz system. Intervals will be specified in tuned–tuning order; this is the order that one staggers the interval when playing it (playing the reference pitch before the pitch to be tuned).

Phase I: Setting the Temperament, Sharp Side (8 strings, 1 minute)

Set a to the desired pitch standard.

This is the a below middle-C (c’), thus an octave below the normally cited reference pitch a’. Tuning in this octave is important because the intervals beat slower and it is therefore easier to make finer gradations.

Tune a tempered (narrow) fifth a–d to the required size.

For 1/4-comma meantone, Praetorius advises that the fifths be tuned “as narrow as is tolerable”; this is good advice.

For a well-temperament that will circulate, temper them but slightly.

For 1/6-comma meantone and other in-between-ish tunings, choose an in-between-ish size of fifth.

Tune a tempered (wide) fourth a–e to the required size.

Remember that a tempered fourth will sound more out of tune than an equivalently tempered fifth.

This is because the the fifth is wider than a fourth, which means the same amount of tempering is a greater proportion of the size of the interval for the fourth than it is for the fifth. In other words, the percent difference between a pure fourth and a ∂-tempered fourth is greater than the percent difference between a pure fifth and a ∂-tempered fifth.

For 1/4-comma meantone, tune the fourths very wide.

For a well-temperament that will circulate, the tempered fourths should beat similarly to 1/6-comma meantone fifths.

For 1/6-comma meantone, they should be about halfway or so between 1/4-comma fourths and pure fourths.

Getting used to knowing where the fourths should sit can be difficult at first. Remember, you can always tune a pure octave down from the reference pitch and then tune the relevant note as a fifth from below. Thus Step 3 becomes:

If it isn’t, your fifths from Steps 2 and 4 weren’t narrow enough; or your fourths from Steps 3 and 5 weren’t wide enough; or both. Go back and adjust. Try tuning the fourths as fifths from below as described at the last bullet under Step 3.

For 1/6-comma meantone, this third should be sweet but slightly wider than pure.

For a well-temperament, this third should be zingy but not too wide. Wider than the major third on an equal-tempered piano would be “too wide.”

When you’re happy with your fourths and fifths in Steps 2–5 and the size of the third in Step 6, memorize the size of the major sixth d–b. This interval will be an important check for the rest of the tuning procedure.

Memorizing the size of an interval is really an exercise in memorizing the timbral quality of an interval as it relates to the timbral qualities of adjacent intervals. For example, it may be helpful to play the intervals d–b, d–a, d–g in quick succession in various orders to get an intuitive, aural sense of just where the pitches g, a, and b lie in relation to each other and in relation to the reference pitch d.

It is useful to memorize permanently the quality of variously tempered fifths and fourths to make Steps 2–5 proceed quickly and accurately; the sizes of fifths and fourths should be the same every time one tunes. The size of the interval check at Step 7 can be a bit more flexible at first; as long as it remains the same within a tuning (rather than between tunings) it will serve its function as a check interval. In time, however, it is good to memorize the size of various tempered sixths to increase accuracy and speed.

Tune a tempered fifth f#–c#’, checking a–c#‘ and e–c#’.

The qualities of a–c#’ and e–c#’ should match those of d–f# and d–b.

If you started with a 1/6-comma-ish fifth and wish your temperament to circulate, make this interval ever-so-slightly closer to pure (wider).

Tune a pure octave c#’–c#.

Check c#–e and c#–a; memorize the size of the minor third and minor sixth.

Again, this advice should at first be construed as “memorize the idiosyncratic size of the minor third and sixth for the purposes of this tuning session” and in time should be construed as “memorize the special size of the minor and major third for a specific temperament or tuning, to be called upon from memory each time one tunes.”

Tune a tempered fifth c#–g#, checking e–g#.

The minor third g#–b is narrow interval high in the tempering octave (d–d’). Consequently, it is (correctly) one of the noisier intervals and therefore less useful as a check.

If you’re trying to circulate, make this interval closer to pure (wider).

You have now tuned the sharp side of the circle. Congratulations.

Play some fourths, fifths, thirds, and sixths (from among the notes you’ve tuned, naturally). Make sure they’re still right. Adjust them if they aren’t. If you’ve taken a long time to get to this point (five minutes or more), you’ll almost certainly have to retune something.

Ideally, you should be able to do Steps 1–11 in about a minute or two; certainly no more than three.

Phase II: Setting the Temperament, Flat Side (7 strings, 1 minute)

Go back to d and tune a pure octave d–d’, checking f#–d’ and a–d’.

We tune the flat side of the circle from d so that any error in tuning aggregates at the wolf interval (e♭–g#)—thus sweeping it under the rug. If we tuned in one direction straight through the circle of fifths, any error would aggregate between d–g, awkwardly in full view.

Strictly speaking Step 16 is redundant but it is an important fail-safe. It ensures that the C is placed precisely. Make sure you are happy with the quality of the major third c–e (which should match d–f# in 1/4-comma or be ever-so-slightly sweeter than d–f# in other tunings), the minor third a–c’(which should match f#–a or be a little dirtier), and the fifth c–g before proceeding.

If you are trying to tune a circulating temperament, you should have tuned purer (or even pure)—that is, wider—fifths in Steps 8 and 11. Check how well you did by seeing if g# can function enharmonically as an a♭ by playing g#–c’. The purer you make the fifths f#–c#’ and c#–g# (Steps 8 and 11, respectively), the better the major third a♭–c’ will be andthe worse the major thirds a–c#’ and e–g# will be. This is the point in the method where you choose between a circulating well-temperament and a non-circulating meantone tuning. Adjust the tuning of the pitches or octaves c#–c#’, g#/a♭, and c–c’ in that order until you are satisfied with the all the relevant major thirds before proceeding.

A quick way to make a tuning retain much of its meantone quality and accommodate certain enharmonic usages is to “split the difference” between g#/a♭ here in Step 17 and e♭/d# (below, Step 20). To do this, tune g#/a♭ smack-dab in between where true g# and a♭ lie using the major thirds e–g# and a♭–c’ as reference points: the idea is to make these major thirds equal in size, or, if you choose, to make the g# sufficiently high to make a♭–c’minimally tolerable and e–g#minimally intolerable.

Tune a tempered fifth c’–f, checking c–f, f–a, and d–f.

Tune a tempered fourth f–b♭, checking d–b♭, g–b♭, and b♭–d’.

If you want your temperament to circulate, make this interval purer (narrower), taking care to check for a tolerable third b♭–d’.

Tune a tempered fifth b♭–e♭, checking e♭–g, e♭–c’, and c–e♭.

For circulating temperaments, make this interval purer (wider), checking also e♭–g#/a♭.

Even in meantone, you may wish to tune the fifth b♭–e♭ purer (wider) to accommodate the enharmonic use of e♭. To do this, first tune a pure octave b–B. Having tuned a tempered fifth b♭–e♭, lower e♭ to make B–d# minimally tolerable and e♭–g minimally intolerable. Note that if you split e♭/d#and g#/a♭ exactly down the middle, the wolf interval e♭–g# will become nearly tolerable. This is because splitting e♭/d#and g#/a♭ moves these notes with opposing tendencies. You can further mitigate the wolf in meantone by making e♭ still closer to d#, or g# still closer to a♭, or both. Remember to check the relevant thirds and sixths as you do so.

You have now tuned the flat side of the circle. Congratulations.

Play fourths, fifths, thirds, and sixths between c–d’ (or perhaps as low as A or B if you’ve tuned those notes as suggested provisionally above). It is useful to play through the tuning recipe with all the tuning intervals and checks in order as a final check of the temperament. As you go along, adjust anything that is out. This step effectively directs you to go back to Step 1 and start all over again. If you’ve done everything accurately and quickly, you won’t have to adjust anything. If you didn’t, now is the time to catch it before you go and tune the rest of the keyboard.

When you believe an interval is wrong, check two other intervals: each of these intervals should share exactly one pitch with the offending interval and be as close to d (by fifths) as possible. This will enable you to determine quickly which of the notes in the offending interval is out, or indeed whether both are out. For example, if f#–a offends, check d–f# and d–a; if e–a offends, check d–a and c–e; and so on. Once the offending pitch is identified, revert to the appropriate step in the tuning recipe and retune from that point all the way to the end, with all the checks (usually only a minor adjustment is necessary).

Play various major and minor triads and check that you are satisfied with their qualities. If you aren’t, identify the offending interval within the triad, then the offending interval within the pitch as described above, and then revert to the appropriate step in the tuning recipe to retune (with checks).

Phase III: Tuning the Compass (<50 strings, 5–10 minutes)

Starting from b, tune pure octaves b–B, b♭–B♭, a–A, chromatically downward to the bottom of the compass, checking fifths and major or minor sixths.

Tune downwards first because these strings are longest and heaviest and therefore have the greatest potential to change the shape of the case and soundboard as they pull against the hitchpin rail and bear down on the bridge and the nut, thereby affecting the tuning. Once the fine-tuning of the highest strings is complete, we don’t want to move the great lumbering strings of the bass.

Choose whether to check a major or minor sixth according to what makes most diatonic sense; put another way, the second note in the check interval should be as close to D (the center of the tuning) as possible. Thus when tuning a C#, check a minor sixth; when tuning a C, check a major sixth. When playing check intervals, play both notes of the octave simultaneously (e.g., C–A–c). If something offends, then play the simple diad on either side of the check note (e.g., C–A, then A–c) to isolate which note offends. Retune the appropriate octave(s).

It is less useful to check thirds and fourths as these rumble vociferously in the lower register; but occasionally they may prove useful as a double or triple check.

Starting from e♭ and through about g”, tune pure octaves chromatically upward to the top of the compass, checking fifths and major or minor sixths and thirds using the “St. Anne Check.”

Taking g’ as an example:

Tune g–g’.

In tempo and in order, play g–d’–g’, g–b–g’, g–e’–g’, g–d’–g’, g–g’.

If something offends, play diads to isolate the offending note. Retune the appropriate octave(s).

The St. Anne Check checks the tuning of d’–b, b–e’, and e’–d in a melodic context, each of these constituent pitches in the important g–g’ harmonic context, and, crucially, g–g’ in three distinct harmonic contexts. Thus the St. Anne Check attunes the ear to both the melodic and harmonic components of the tuning, ensuring that it will be musically satisfying (not merely acoustically correct).

Iterated over the chromatic compass of the keyboard, the St. Anne Check makes it very difficult to miss a mistuned interval.

From about about c”(the top one-and-a-half or two octaves of the compass), start checking fourths systematically too using the “Birdland Check.”

Taking g” as an example:

Tune g’–g”.

In tempo and in order, play g’–b’–g”, g’–c”–g”, g’–d”–g”, g’–g”.

If something offends, play diads to isolate the offending note. Retune the appropriate octave(s).

You should also continue to check sixths using the St. Anne Check in tandem withthe Birdland Check for fourths as you tune c” through about g” as octaves from below. Above g” sixths are less are a less useful check and you can dispense with the St. Anne Check.

From about g”, that is, the top octave of the keyboard, do not tune octaves. Rather, tune the notes of this octave as tolerable fifths from below, checking fourths, thirds and sixths below using the “Westminster Check.”

Taking a” as an example:

Tune d”–a” such that is is qualitatively similar to d’–a’ (the fifth an octave lower).

In tempo and in order, play c#”–a”, e”–a”, f#”–a”, d”–a”, a’–a”.

The sixth, fourth, third, and fifth should not offend. If any does, retune the offending octave(s).

The octave a’–a” (“Big Ben” if you like…) should be fractionally wider than pure. “Stretched” octaves from about g” to the top of the compass sacrifices harmonic tuning in favor of melodic tuning for the highest register (where one is unlikely to play octaves anyway).

You have now tuned one whole choir.

Play triple or quadruple chromatic octaves up and down the keyboard to find any stray notes out of tune and indeed to try to knock the instrument out of tune. If it’s liable to slip, it might as well slip now when you’re there to fix it.

If something offends, play left hand and right hand separately to isolate the offending octave; then play fourths or fifths to isolate the offending pitch. Retune the false note as a pure octave from below, using the appropriate checks.

Phase IV: Tuning the Remaining Choirs (>50 strings, 5–10 minutes)

Engage a second register and tune chromatic unisons first down from f, then up from f#.

On a two-register instrument, I like to tune the back 8′ first and then tune the front 8′ second. On a three-register instrument I like to tune the front 8′ first, the back 8′ to the front 8′ and then 4′ to the front 8′ (with the back 8′ off).

Remember, it is important to tune the lower register before the higher register for the reason given in Step 22.

Disengage the first register, and play checks throughout the whole compass of the second register only (the register just tuned). Adjust anything that seems out.

You should be aware of a curious phenomenon. Having tuned beautiful octaves, fifths, fourths, and thirds in your first register and having tuned beautiful unisons in your second register from the first register, you turn off the first register and check the fourths, fifths, sixths, and thirds in the second and find that they are all awry. This is because there is actually a fairly wide tolerance in the tuning of a unison: strings which are almost-but-not-quite tuned as unisons will pull each other into tune as they vibrate (this phenomenon is known as harmonic entrainment). But when played with strings of other piches, they are not so pulled into tune and sound funny.

One way to deal with this is to make very minor adjustments to the fourths and fifths of the second register independently. The kinds of adjustments that you may need to make will be minuscule. Sometimes it simply matters whether a note was moved down or up into tune. Once you move something in the second register, turn the first register back on to check the unison.

Another, slightly safer, way to correct any errors of this kind is to find the offending interval in the second register and determine which note needs to move, and in which direction by playing various check intervals. Then, turn the first register back on and retune the offending pitch as a unison to the first register. For example if a fifth needed to be slightly wider in the second register, retune the top note of the fifth as a unison to the first register by nudging it sharper without spoiling the unison. You will find that there is some play in the unison: you can move notes very slightly sharper or flatter without making them sound out-of-unison with the first register.

Scrupulous checks of the 4′ are often superfluous, but may be helpful in tuning a troublesome pitch. Sometimes a 4′ string will have a difficult timbre which obscures its pitch content. Other times the ear is fatigued by this stage in the tuning (usually you will have been tuning for about 15 minutes by this time). Doing something clever like turning off the 8′ choir and tuning an octave or a fifth directly in the 4′ choir could help get around some difficult corner. It’s never worth bashing your head against the wall; if something isn’t working, stop and simply do something else. Remember that for any given note on the keyboard, you can always tune it as an octave, sixth, fifth, fourth, or third from above or below, or as a unison or octave from another choir.

*Beat counts are necessary when hired to tune a specifically requested temperament to “textbook” standards (for example, if someone requests Vallotti centered on G with a raised F#). It is also useful as a way to set intervals perfectly as a starting point while learning to memorize the quality of the various intervals in the various temperaments.

]]>Lyriques bibliques of Antoine Houdar de La Motte (1672–1731)http://www.matthewjhall.com/2012/10/17/lyriques-bibliques-of-antoine-houdar-de-la-motte-1672-1731/
Wed, 17 Oct 2012 19:30:16 +0000http://www.matthewjhall.com/?p=249This is a practical study in the pronunciation and declamation of the metrical French verse of La Motte, perhaps the greatest Classic French poet of the generation after Molière. La Motte was the librettist of André Campra’s L’Europe galante (1697), for instance. The texts were analyzed according to the principles of Bacilly (1668) and other writers who describe françois restauré. This research was undertaken for Brandywine Baroque’s recording project of Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre’s Cantates françoises sur sujets tirez de l’écriture (1709/11), which set La Motte’s poetry. The recording will be released by Plectra Records. The following is an example of one of the lyriques; there are a dozen total. Please contact me if you are interested in this project.

]]>Charles Dieupart (c.1667–1740), French-style instrumental concertshttp://www.matthewjhall.com/2012/10/17/charles-dieupart-c-1667-1740-french-style-instrumental-concerts/
Wed, 17 Oct 2012 19:28:29 +0000http://www.matthewjhall.com/?p=246This project deals with the keyboard music of Dieupart in particular, and in early eighteenth-century chamber music of the French tradition in general. Topics include: demise of the lute; rise of the harpsichord; musical amateurism; Estienne Roger; concerts such as those of Couperin and Rameau.